Matematisk modellering i lærerutdanning – mot en mer praktisk og samfunnsrelevant matematikkundervisning

Project summary

Mathematical Modelling in Teacher Education – Towards a More Practical and Socially Relevant Mathematics Teaching The introduction of the Norwegian Curriculum Framework 2020 (LK20) and White Paper 34 (2023–2024) on a more practical school sets new demands for mathematics teaching. Mathematical modelling can be an approach that promotes mathematics as more practical, exploratory, and relevant to students' lives and the society they are part of. We currently know little about how teachers develop modelling competence through continuing education that promotes a more practical school, and how such competence is translated into classroom practice. The project is anchored in the Lived Democracy research group at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), whose overarching goal is to understand and promote critical democratic bildung processes in school and teacher education. This project builds directly on this scholarly tradition by investigating how mathematical modelling can serve as a tool for precisely such bildung. The project has three overarching aims: To explore how mathematical modelling can contribute to a more practical and socially relevant mathematics teaching in teacher education. To investigate how working with modelling in a teacher education course can support the development of critical thinking and reflection related to socially relevant issues. To develop knowledge about how teacher educators and teachers work with mathematical modelling in teaching and learning for a more practical school. The project draws on critical mathematics education and democratic bildung theory, as developed within the Lived Democracy group at HVL. The group has ongoing projects in areas including critical mathematics education, climate change, socially relevant topics in mathematics education, and the teaching of indices as mathematical models and entry points for critical discussions — research that this project will build upon and complement with a focus on teacher professionalism and continuing education. The project has a primarily qualitative approach. Data collection will include observation of digital teaching sessions in PMM801 A More Practical School with Mathematical Modelling, interviews with participating teachers, questionnaires to map attitudes and competence development, and analysis of students' written work and teaching plans. This approach makes it possible to illuminate both the breadth and depth of teachers' competence development, and to triangulate findings across data sources. The project is connected to the course PMM801 – A More Practical School with Mathematical Modelling – at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, a fully digital continuing education course worth 15 credits. The course is organised around four themes: introduction to mathematical modelling, interdisciplinary topics and practical modelling, didactic perspectives on modelling, and critical democratic bildung. This provides opportunities to study professional development in an authentic educational context. The project will contribute research-based knowledge about how continuing education can strengthen teachers' modelling competence and their ability to integrate socially relevant topics into mathematics teaching in ways that make it more practical. The results will be relevant for the development of teacher education, education policy, and subject-didactic research, and will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, popular science articles, and professional networks. The project will be carried out over one year, from the start of autumn 2026 to autumn 2027, and aims for two cycles, in line with the running of PMM801.